Coalition Forces Begin Assault On Tal Afar

September 11, 2005|By The Chicago Tribune

BAGHDAD, IRAQ — Iraqi soldiers form the majority of the troops in a new effort to crack the insurgent stronghold.

U.S. and Iraqi troops began a ground assault Saturday to root out pockets of insurgents in the northern city of Tal Afar, a militant stronghold that coalition forces have struggled to fully secure since Saddam Hussein's ouster in 2003.

Several thousand coalition soldiers converged on the city, moving house-to-house through insurgent-held neighborhoods. Of the 17 battalions involved in the offensive, all but three were made up of Iraqi troops.

U.S. troops swept into Tal Afar last year and routed insurgents from the city. Afterward, however, they left behind 500 soldiers to maintain order, not nearly enough to stave off a re-emergence of militants.

Though the all-out assault began Saturday, U.S. and Iraqi troops have recently ramped up their crackdown on insurgents in Tal Afar. Thursday, Iraqi officials said as many as 200 militants had been arrested.

Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun al-Duleimi said more than 140 insurgents have been killed over the past two days.

In anticipation of the assault, civilians in two neighborhoods controlled by militants, the Sarai and Hassan Koy districts, were evacuated in recent days.

In Baghdad, the capital's airport reopened Saturday, a day after it was shut down because of a pay dispute between the Iraqi government and Global Security, the British company that provides security at the airport. *